Escaping email hell with a beach walk before school pickup.

A pebble beach stretches along the coastline with two people and a dog walking near the water's edge under a clear sky.

When did you last reply to someone on social media?

As Elvis didn’t sing, a little more conversation, a little less promotion please.

The downside of falling behind with your email:

“Wow, that looks like an interesting event. I must book. Let’s see, when is it…? Oh. Two weeks ago.”

I have spent the last 20 years of my career endlessly campaigning for the journalism business to take the idea of community-building around its journalism seriously.

Now it’s finally, finally happening I should feel vindicated and celebratory. But largely I just feel tired.

#mbjune Day 8: Travel 📷

All the images from the challenge.

A Snapchat advertisement on a London Underground platform features a collage of photos, including people and a dog, with overlayed text and the Snapchat logo.

I can’t find the list of #mbjune prompts for today onwards. Anyone seen it?

#mbjune Day 7: Switch 📷

All the images from the challenge.

A white light switch is adorned with a small, yellow bee decoration at its center.

My daughter clearly likes hanging around in our local Warhammer shop too much. This was her latest procrastination technique in face of my “Ready to go yet?”

A group of white dice with black dots is neatly arranged in a grid pattern on a red surface, next to a Warhammer Age of Sigmar Spearhead battle mat. All of the dice are showing 6s

Grabbing a coffee, some Aeropress filters and a vegan croissant at Small Batch Coffee. And catching up on my feeds in NetNewsWire.

The weekend!

A cafe interior features tall chairs lined along a counter by large windows with potted plants and pendant lights, next to a barista station.

#mbjune Day 6: Contrast 📷

A close-up of a purple flower with a vibrant yellow center is shown against a dark background.

All the images from the challenge.

Replacing scrolling with microjournaling:

Microjournaling is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of setting aside 15 minutes to write in your journal, you’re going to shrink that to a minute or two. A microjournaling session could even last under 60 seconds. It’s just enough time to dash off a thought or two.

Or, y’know, microblogging.

Ghost 6.0 coming “in the next few weeks”.

Another step towards mainstreaming ActivityPub.

A cartoon-style illustration of a pug dressed as a superhero, wearing a red mask, red cape, and a blue suit with a large yellow number 6 on its chest. The pug stands confidently with its paws on its hips. Beside it, a smiling cartoon ghost with a simple white sheet-like appearance looks on proudly. The background is light blue with a few rounded clouds, giving the scene a cheerful and whimsical feel.

The leaked script for the Apple WWDC keynote…

10:35: “Here at Apple,” Federighi continues, “we believe in honesty, in accountability, in holding ourselves to the highest possible standards. And when we make a mistake, we hold our hands up and blame John Giannandrea. Get out here, John!”

😂

My wife’s first book is released later this month. I’m in awe of how much work a textbook takes compared to the books I’ve written.

#mbjune Day 5: Reflection 📷

A serene pond is surrounded by trees, with a small dock and a person in a red jacket visible in the distance.

Original 1980s #warhammer40k Space Marines, a relic of my long-ago teenage years.

#mbjune Day 4: Nostalgia 📷

Three miniature Games Workshop Space Marine figures in detailed, colorful armor pose on a surface with a blurred window in the background.

This is brilliant – a piece told in screenshots (which is probably an accessibility nightmare…) showing how ChatGPT’s confident tone can make complete bullshit seem plausible at first.

Read the whole thing.

Shadows fall, but light remains.

#mbjune day 3: Shadow 📷

A serene, dark beach scene is illuminated by the faint glow of a sunset or sunrise on the horizon.

Peter Bihr:

There’s a good chance we’re headed into a negative loop in which genAI creates slop that is custom-tailored for recommender AI systems to go viral, creating stronger incentives to create more slop — and all the while drowning out human-created as well as higher-quality content. Which we need, because participation and democracy needs us to have good info.

Compelling piece from 404 Media about the accelerating crisis in education driven by AI: Teachers Are Not OK.

We’re staring down a future where students exit education having learnt little but how to write good AI prompts, and then disguise the fact that’s what they did.